Ruhul Adab

Commentary of Imam Hassane Cisse.

37. Maintenance and Increasing Faith

After knowing Allah, the student has achieved and has been most blessed. What remains is for him to maintain this position. It is like a seed that was planted and by Allah’s will grows. For this to have perfect growth, it must be constantly watered, maintained and protected from insects, bad pollination etc. In the next 24 verses, Shaykh Ibrahim gives advice on how to continuously maintain the state of faith, so as to have good spiritual growth. He also spells out how to protect this growth from infection. He lists 15 ways of increasing one’s faith, then 22 different ways of wiping away any acquired defects, harm and injury to the soul.

38. Repentance

After realizing the Splendor and Everlasting and Majestic Beauty of the Creator, the next step is to repent for shortcomings and past ignorance. Allah advised the prophet ﷺ in the Qur’an 110:1-3 “When the victory of Allah has come and the conquest…Then exalt [Him] with praise of your Lord and ask forgiveness of Him…” Thus the first step is repentance followed by good work, with the intention to never return to evil, as Allah said in the Qur’an 3:135-136 “And those who, when they commit an immorality or wrong themselves [by transgression], remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins – and who can forgive sins except Allah ? – and [who] do not persist in what they have done while they know. Those – their reward is forgiveness from their Lord and gardens beneath which rivers flow [in Paradise], wherein they will abide eternally; and excellent is the reward of the [righteous] workers.” However, it is unacceptable to indulge in evil while seeking Allah’s forgiveness, as mentioned in the Qur’an 4:137 “Indeed, those who have believed then disbelieved, then believed, then disbelieved, and then increased in disbelief – never will Allah forgive them, nor will He guide them to a way”.

      The one who has known Allah, therefore is the one who fears Him most. Not only is he afraid to commit any sin, he is also eager to treat all creation of Allah nicely. Any time he sees the creation of Allah, he sees Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said in a sound hadith: “None of you is a complete believer until he loves for his fellow brother what he loves for himself”. Allah said in the Qur’an 49:10 “The believers are but brothers, so make settlement between your brothers. And fear Allah that you may receive mercy.” And in the Qur’an 21:92 Allah said: “Indeed this, your religion, is one religion, and I am your Lord, so worship Me”. We can deduce that since to worship Allah is to know Allah, and to worship Allah is to fear Allah, then it implies that; to Fear Allah is to Know Allah.

       In conclusion, the sign that one is worshiping Allah correctly is that he knows Allah and the sign that one has known Allah is that he fears Allah. For one who worships and knows Allah, is seeing Allah and at the same time is aware that Allah is watching him continuously. He is therefore fearful of Allah and is good to His creation. This is the state of excellence (Ihsan), which the angel Gabriel has described as: “To worship Allah as if you see Allah, and if you are not able to see Him, then worship Him and be aware that He is continuously seeing you”. Allah says in the Qur’an 57:4 “And He (Allah) is with you wherever you are”. To know and fear Allah, also means to be happy with all of His actions. Because, one knows that Allah is constantly showing him Mercy. Allah says in the Qur’an 4:29 “And do not kill yourselves [or one another]. Indeed, Allah is to you ever Merciful”. The Prophet SAW has said that Allah is much more Merciful to us than our Mother is to us during the suckling period. Allah said in the Qur’an 16:78 “And Allah has extracted you from the wombs of your mothers not knowing a thing, and He made for you hearing and vision and intellect that perhaps you would be grateful”. Allah, Who cared for us in our state of helplessness, then blessed us with hearing, seeing and feelings, loves us more than anyone else does. We should therefore be satisfied with Him in all conditions and hope for His Mercy.

To be continued in shaa Allah.

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